Hello, my name is Mrs. Holborow and welcome to Computing.

I'm so pleased you've decided to join me for the lesson today.

In today's lesson, we're going to be learning how to create Gantt and PERT charts, and we'll be evaluating these tools for project planning.

Welcome to today's lesson from the unit Using IT in project management.

This lesson is called Tools for project planning, and by the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to create Gantt and PERT charts to plan a project, and explain the advantages and disadvantages of each tool.

Shall we make a start? We will be exploring these keywords in today's lesson.

Let's take a look at them now.

Gantt chart.

Gantt chart, a planning tool that displays activities against blocks of time.

PERT chart.

PERT chart.

A PERT chart, Programme Evaluation and Review Technique, is a network diagram that uses nodes and arrows to show task flow.

Look out for these keywords throughout today's lesson.

Today's lesson is split into three sections.

We'll start by creating a Gantt chart, we'll then create a PERT chart, and then we'll finish by evaluating planning tools.

Let's make a start by creating a Gantt chart.

Planning tools help manage time and tasks in a project by visually organising when and how activities should be completed.

Using these planning tools, you can allocate tasks and resources, identify milestones, so setting out when each task must be completed, and create a visual depiction of the end product.

We have seen that time is part of SMART goals, and if it's missed out, the project is likely to fail.

Why incorporate time in planning tools? Maybe pause the video whilst you think about this question.

Most projects have a team that will work on them, a clear start and end date, and defined milestones with specific dates and times.

With this in mind, having time linked to tasks mapped out over the course of the project means, one, the project manager can keep track of the progress of a project.

Team members have a clear understanding of how long they have to complete the task.

And some tasks can be carried out at the same time as others.

There are a number of tools for this, but we're going to focus on Gantt charts and PERT charts.

There are websites that you can use to produce these charts with templates provided.

A Gantt chart presents each task as a block of time.

It shows how much time it will take to complete a task.

A Gantt chart shows which tasks are dependent on another one being completed before they can begin.

It also shows which tasks can be completed at the same time as others.

This is called concurrently.

A Gantt chart shows buffer or contingency time.

This is extra time that should be included in every project, just in case things take longer than expected or something goes wrong.

It highlights key aspects of the project that need to be completed at a specific time.

These are called milestones.

Time to check your understanding.

I have a true or false statement for you.

Gantt charts show which tasks are dependent on another one being completed before they can begin.

Is this true or false? Pause the video whilst you have a think.

Did you select true? Well done.

Why is it true? Gantt charts often have lines and arrows which show the relationship between one task and another.

They will highlight which tasks rely on others being completed first.

Here is a Gantt chart that has been started for you.

This is available as a downloadable file for this lesson, so don't worry if you can't see it quite clearly on the slide deck.

You will use the Gantt chart to map the SMART goals for the Delicious Desserts project linked to your lesson timings.

Let's have a look at this work breakdown structure or WBS.

So we can see we have a WBS number, and then we have task title.

So task one is project initiation, and we've split this down into subtasks.

So 1.

1, analyse the brief.

1.

1.

1, identify user requirements.

1.

2, identify constraints.

1.

3, create the feasibility report.

And then finally 1.

4, create SMART goals.

Numbers are assigned to aid the organisation of tasks, which are broken down into major deliverables, so things that need to be achieved.

The task breakdown is linked to the SMART goals.

The lesson time is filled in before the task is completed because remember, this is a plan, so this is going to indicate the amount of time allocated to each task.

So the percentage of task completed is calculated using functions, and the lesson time is broken down into 10 minute slots.

In the example, the tasks for the initiation stage have been broken into 10 minute slots.

The start time for each consecutive task is the same as the due time for the previous task.

If you were working in a team, you would name the person responsible for the task in the task owner column.

So the duration is calculated using functions, and we've used a time format here.

So we've got hour hour, minute minute, second seconds.

This is completed only when the task is completed.

Do not complete the time section until the task is complete.

When you do, make sure the times run consecutively.

This means if something took longer than expected, you may need to adjust the times going forward.

Time to check your understanding.

I have a true or false statement for you.

WBS stands for working business structure.

Is this true or false? Pause the video whilst you have a think.

Did you spot it as false? Well done.

Why is it false? Because WBS stands for work breakdown structure.

This is where the main tasks are broken down into smaller, more manageable chunks.

The structure is hierarchical, starting with the overall project goal.

Okay, we're moving on to our first task of today's lesson.

I'd like you to open the Gantt chart template provided.

You'll see that the initiation stage has already been completed for you.

Use your SMART goals to complete the tasks for each aspect of the project.

In planning, you need to include creating a time plan, and sketching the visual elements.

For part three, use the fill tool to colour the timescale for the tasks under each lesson.

Pause the video here whilst you complete the task.

Okay, so you've created your Gantt charts.

We are now going to go on to create a PERT chart.

PERT stands for Project Evaluation and Review Technique.

It uses rectangles or circles to represent tasks.

These are called nodes.

They are numbered according to the task number.

So you can see here we have some nodes represented on our diagram.

The nodes are linked using arrows.

The arrows indicate the path and the order in which tasks should be completed.

They also indicate the time to be taken between tasks.

So let's have a look at this example.

So you can see we have task one, which has to be completed before task two, and then task three and task four can run concurrently or at the same time.

Then they both have happen before task five can happen, and then finally we have task six.

And then between the arrows, you can see we would add the time that each task is going to take.

The chart identifies dependent tasks.

In this example, task five cannot start until tasks three and task four are completed.

It also represents tasks that can run concurrently.

So here, tasks three and four can run at the same time.

Okay, time to check your understanding.

I have a fill in the gaps activity for you.

PERT stands for Project and Review Technique.

It uses rectangles or circles to represent.

These are called.

These shapes are linked using arrows.

The arrows indicate the and the order in which tasks should be completed.

They also indicate the to be taken between tasks.

And the words provided are tasks, path, time, nodes, and evaluation.

Pause the video whilst you have a go at filling in the gaps.

How did you get on? Did you manage to fill in the gaps correctly? Well done.

Let's have a look at the answers together.

PERT stands for Project Evaluation and Review Technique.

It uses rectangles or circles to represent tasks.

These are called nodes.

These shapes are linked using arrows.

The arrows indicate the path and the order in which tasks should be completed.

They also indicate the time to be taken between tasks.

Did you get all of those correct? Well done.

So here we've got an example of a PERT chart.

This shows the initiation phase.

In reality, the complete chart will be much longer.

So we have our task list.

One, analyse the brief.

Two, identify user requirements.

Three, identify constraints.

Four, create a feasibility report.

And five, create SMART goals.

So you can see we start with analyse the brief, which we think is going to take 10 minutes.

We then can do tasks two and three concurrently.

We can then move on to task four, which is to create a feasibility report, and that must be completed before we create our SMART goals.

So nodes are used to indicate the tasks.

Arrows with time in minutes indicate the duration of each task.

In this example, task four cannot start before tasks two and three have been completed.

Is this true or false? Pause the video whilst you have a think.

That's right, it's true.

Task four must happen before task five, because of the way that it is ordered on the PERT diagram.

Both tasks two and three are joined to task two with an arrow.

This means they need to be completed first.

They can however be completed simultaneously.

Okay, we're moving on to our second task of today's lesson, task B.

I'd like you to create your own PERT chart for the Delicious Desserts project.

Use presentation software, so something like Google Slides.

Create a numbered task list, and then format your chart.

Remember to allocate sufficient time to complete the tasks.

Okay, so you've now created a Gantt chart and a PERT chart.

We are now going to move on to evaluate these planning tools.

Let's have a look at some advantages of Gantt charts.

A Gantt chart can help you organise your thoughts.

Comments can be added during the run of the project, so to say how things are going, or if there's been any issues that may have delayed a task.

It has the potential to set realistic timeframes.

The project tasks are shown against time in blocks, which is really visual.

It's highly visible to everybody in the team, so everybody can see the tasks, how long they've got, and which tasks have been allocated to them.

Let's have a look at some disadvantages of Gantt charts.

Since the task time is estimated, the plan may be unrealistic.

The size of the bar per task does not indicate the amount of work needed.

So some tasks can look fairly small on a Gantt chart, but actually, they're really significant.

A Gantt chart can be difficult to see on one sheet of paper, particularly for large projects.

It can be difficult to see dependencies, so dependencies are where one part of a project relies on another.

Let's have a look at some advantages of a PERT chart.

They're useful for planning large projects.

They support activity analysis by breaking down activities into much smaller components.

They also answer what if questions.

It's easy to identify dependent and concurrent tasks, so which tasks have to happen before another task can happen, and which tasks can happen at the same time.

Timescales can be planned accurately.

Let's now have a look at some disadvantages of a PERT chart.

It takes a lot of time to develop an accurate PERT chart.

A lack of experience in creating a PERT chart can result in an overly complex chart with inaccurate timings, which isn't going to support the project very well.

It has the potential to become confusing.

Time to check your understanding.

I have a true or false statement for you.

In a PERT chart, the size of the bar per task does not indicate the amount of work needed.

Is this true or false? Pause the video whilst you have a think.

Did you select false? Well done.

Remember, this is a disadvantage of Gantt charts.

PERT charts have nodes, not bars.

Another true or false statement for you.

Gantt charts are better than PERT charts.

Is this true or false? Pause the video whilst you have a think.

Did you say false? Well done.

Gantt charts may be deemed better than PERT charts in some instances, but not all.

The choice of chart will depend on the project and what the team prefers to use.

Okay, we're moving on to our final task of today's lesson, task C.

I'd like you to look at the Gantt and PERT charts you have created in the previous activities of this lesson.

Choose which tool you would prefer to use for project planning and explain your reasons.

Pause the video here whilst you complete the activity.

How did you get on? Did you manage to think about which tool you preferred? Well done.

Let's have a look at a sample answer together.

So here I've got Andeep.

Andeep says, "I think both tools could be helpful, but I would prefer to use a Gantt chart to plan a project.

I find them easier to use and interpret.

I find the bars much easier to understand than the nodes in the PERT chart, which can be quite confusing." Do you agree with Andeep, or did you prefer to use the PERT chart? Okay, we've come to the end of today's lesson Tools for project planning, and you've done a fantastic job, so well done.

Let's summarise what we've learned in this lesson.

Planning tools help manage time and tasks in a project by visually organising when and how activities should be completed.

A Gantt chart is a timeline based planning tool.

A PERT chart, which stands for Programme Evaluation and Review Technique, is a network diagram that uses nodes and arrows to show task flow.

I hope you've enjoyed today's lesson, and I hope you'll join me again soon.

Bye.